Cloning, stem cell research, brain implants, enhancement drugs. Bioethics examines the ethical dimensions of these developments. Are some of these procedures inherently unethical? Why, or why not? Should there be restrictions to how they are developed? More recently, other ethical issues have been included within bioethics, including those traditionally examined within nursing or medical ethics. This includes assisted suicide, resource allocation and global health issues. While bioethics weighs the pros and cons of ethical arguments, broader issues must also be examined. Character issues are important, like honesty, faithfulness and issues of conscience. Bioethics involves the mind, but also emotional and spiritual issues. Popular culture often reveals these dimensions in the films, novels and songs that raise bioethical issues. There are many issues of many different types. This website aims to provide some thoughts and directions on these topics.
“Human Dignity and the Ethics of Human Enhancement,” Trans-Humanities 6.1 (February 2013): 99-120.
“The State of Bioethics in Ireland,” podcast of presentation in the Ethics for All lecture series, Mater Dei Institution of Ethics, Dublin (29 March 2011)
“The place of dignity in everyday ethics,” Journal of Christian Nursing 28.1 (Jan-Mar 2011): 12-18.
“Bioethics and biotechnology,” Cytotechnology 53.1-3 (April 2007): 113-119.
Informing Irish Patients: Implications for Direct to Consumer Advertising of Prescription Medications. Irish Patients’ Association: Dublin; 2007.
“Human dignity in the Nazi Era: implications for current bioethics,” BMC Medical Ethics, 7.2 (March 2006).
Counterfeit Drugs: Towards an Irish Response to a Global Crisis. Irish Patients’ Association: Dublin; 2005.
Health Care Rights and Responsibilities: A Review of the European Charter of Patients’ Rights. Irish Patients’ Association: Dublin; 2005.
“The role of art in the Genetic Age,” Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity (2002).
“What to call human cloning,” European Molecular Biology Organization Reports, 3.6 (June 2002): 502-505.
Bioethics Ireland 